General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What the Oliver Stone docu says about the nuclear bombing of Japan is... [View all]GreenStormCloud
(12,072 posts)There was no pending Russian invasion of the Japanese home islands. Russia could only attack Japanese troops in China as they didn't have the naval capacity for an invasion. WWII for Russian had been a land and air war, not a naval one.
While the bombs did not signifigantly add to the destruction of Japan, they were something new and horrible and gave the Japanese leadership an honorable excuse to surrender. Even then the vote to surrender was only 3-3. The Emperor himself had to act and record a surrender record. There was an attempt at a coup which almost succeeded, but the record was played over the radio to the Japanese public.
From that speech: The enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is, indeed, incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives. Should we continue to fight, not only would it result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization." http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/08/the-emperors-speech-67-years-ago-hirohito-transformed-japan-forever/261166/
Those are the words of Emperor Hirohito as he told the Japanese public of the surrender. He specifically references the atomic bomb.
In saying what he does, Oliver Stone completely ignores the very words of the Japanese Emperor on August 15, 1945.